The Society for Practising Veterinary Surgeons (SPVS) 2022/3 Salary Survey report gives detailed information on remuneration levels and is the only one of its kind providing an invaluable benchmark to all those working in the veterinary sector.
The 2022/3 Salary Survey covers everything from basic earnings, bonuses, dividends and overtime, to benefits such as accommodation, car allowances and pensions.
This year SPVS have added a supplement on basic salaries rather than just package to help those in practice.
There is also data on satisfaction too.
SPVS members will receive the full version and there is a Nurses Salary Survey and Highlights summary report available.
Respondent data
There were over 1,800 responses to this year’s salary survey.
Seventy-nine percent of respondents were female and 90 percent of responses were from vets and nurses.
Over 94 percent of respondents were in veterinary practices and 60 percent of these in mainly small animal.
The Society are also looking to provide a user friendly tool for the SPVS website to give a visual for the different regions and periods qualified so people can plot their own practice on the appropriate regional graph to compare salaries. Keep an eye out for this.
Is there a gender pay gap?
Again, similarly to last year a similar percentage of males and females are undertaking further training to increase their clinical and non-clinical responsibilities.
However, still, a much higher percentage of men are going on to convert these skills into a position of leadership or management than women. Why is this?
Looking at all periods qualified across all vets there still appears to be a gender pay gap of 22 percent; however, this is not the whole story.
This figure was skewed by vets qualified by 15 years or more which had the largest pay gap difference between genders.
It is worth noting that 22 percent of women in this category in the 2022/3 Salary Survey gave their job title as junior/associate veterinary surgeon compared to only 6 percent of men.
This apparent gender disparity is therefore likely due to career progression rather than true gender pay gap.
It still leads to the question as to why are more men than women in a position of leadership/management in the veterinary sector when the vast majority of vets are female.
In the satisfaction part of the 2022/3 Salary Survey, women were more satisfied with their hours, working conditions and support than the males but less satisfied with renumeration and prospects.
Over time working
This year had a large change in over time working with only 51 percent of vets and nurses working over time as opposed to 78 percent in 2021.
There are still 33 percent of vets working normal day time hours alongside on call but out of hours providers are providing the majority of out of hours work.
Some figures from the 2022/3 Salary Survey
- For all full time vets, the median salary package has risen from £48,325 to £52,693compared to last year (ie by 9 percent). This was true for most regions except London where it rose to £68,950 (by 47 percent)
- New graduate salary package has increased by 3 percent to £33,600. New grad basic salary has increased by a similar percentage to £32,000
- For nurses, for all QVNSs, median salary package increased from £27,000 to £30,500 (by 13 percent). For student nurses this figure was 4 percent
- For locums vets, daily median rates increased by 21 percent to £425. Their hourly rates increased by 22 percent to £50. Night working locums increased by 50 percent to £750/night
- For Locum nurses, median daily rates increased by 38 percent to £199 and hourly rates increased by 18 percent to £23.50
As ever, SPVS are very grateful for everyone that took the time to fill in the 2022/3 Salary Survey.
The Society hopes it provides an up to date benchmark tool to be used in practice as part of responsible leadership for employers and as valuable information to employees.
SPVS Fees Survey will be out as usual later in the year.
SPVS members have access to the full 2022/3 Salary Survey via the SPVS website.
For more information about SPVS and other member benefits visit the member benefits page.
